When I was a kid, I'd been in love with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and one of my favorite episodes was "Inca Mummy Girl", a filler episode involving a 500-year-old Inca princess rising from her tomb and falling in love with one of the protagonists - but the drop is that she constantly needs to feed on innocent souls to continue living. This terrified me but also fascinated me that it was in my adaptation genes to draw the story and tell it to class - and they applauded me for it. :')

A fond memory which brings me to the present.

Rewatching the episode, I learned the mummy was based off a real Incan maiden known as "Juanita", and the appearances are similar. I also just watched a documentary on a fourteen-year-old girl (a separate but similar case) who was found in 1999 atop the tallest active volcano in the Andes, and her story is so tragic and tear-jerking, but they all are. Facts from the documentary are pivotal in this story. I've chosen not to say everything simply because I want you all to be drawn, intrigued and surprised. ;) Enjoy this supernatural ride, but if anyone is fainthearted regarding the processes of mummification in any country, proceed with caution.

I own NOTHING of Naruto, the historical facts and documentaries of mummification, or any of the entertainment media on mummies.

Chapter One

The Discovery on Mt. Yudono

Yudono Mountain was one of the tallest of the three most holy of Japan, being only in between the highest of Gassan and the smallest and most accessible that was Haguro. All three having a long history of worship, being opened by a prince fourteen hundred years ago who in return hid here in exile when his father, the emperor of the time, was killed, devoting his life to religion...and that was when the deities of each mountain of the names became known. Hence the Three Mountains of Dewa, which was now known as the prefecture of Yamagata.

It was Yudono, the most sacred, that the finding was uncovered miles away from the shrine, near the highest point and in cold weather, just before the winter season would kick in. This was the season when the snowfall would become excessive, preventing visitors from going in and residents going out - even for long periods of time.

However, it was by fate that Tsunade Senju's excavation team had begun to set out after about two dozen mummifications were found in history, all of which had endured the self-mummification process of sokushinbutsu which was practiced from the 1100's and eventually outlawed in the early twentieth century. The details of the process were so gruesome that the fainthearted literally passed out or would have died from shock.

Tsunade had bled, sweat and cried with her team which had been put together when she was still an intern, and after seven years of employment and studying the various mummified monks who were gradually discovered over the last few decades, she began to believe another mummy was hidden in one of the blessed sierras. One that hadn't been found yet. The source had come from her lover and colleague who had been in the mountains scouting, getting the map and coordinates out to her personally by messenger. This was Dan's life in the wilderness: always braving the most hazardous environments for the dead, priceless artifacts for the museum...but this time he died for it. Lack of oxygen. He'd written that his life was growing short, saying not much because everyone knew what it was like up in Mt. Yudono, and at the end of the short letter, he labeled the coordinates of his last location and the possible resting place, or if there was no mummy, then some antiquity never seen before, which was going to be what he'd risked his neck for as a waste.

His body was brought back by the time Tsunade was finally given permission after days of demanding from the museum board. She'd been called out on her grief and "lack of sense", and her temper nearly cost her the opportunity. She would NOT let Dan's life be for nothing.

Eventually, the board relented, although she didn't have a lot of time. The point was miles away from the Yudono Shrine, which she'd been to as a teenager with Dan and friends, although her new chance to be at the destination would be for another purpose - and the winter season was on the horizon. They had to work fast, even when a snowstorm was coming. The ground would be frozen, then three or four months of delay would prolong the agony...until on the second day of being at the dig site, away from the vigilant eyes of the priests and residents of the shrine, Tsunade could shed a tear of joy and close on the fact the man she loved would rest in peace.

In the distance, one of the boys shouted the word: "Mīra!"

A mummy. Thank you, Dan.

There, inside a six-feet-deep, seven-foot-long pit which was found on GPS satellite and dug up by four people, was a casket of faded wood, but inside was a long bundle wrapped in old cloth, untied and free to be removed, although appearances were deceiving. One of the four helicopters was loaded with the casket and its contents. There was no time to stop and examine the site any further because the temperature was increasing as the first day of the season neared, although it didn't appear there would be anything outside the coffin; everything was inside.

The specimen had to be taken back to the lab immediately. Time was of the essence because it had been in the arid, frigid environment for possibly centuries. It was highly likely it wouldn't last in warm air for a long period of time. Hence the wrappings couldn't be removed, since they'd clearly been covering the subject for centuries and were likely a part of him or her.

When they had the coffin in the lab of the Konoha Museum of Antiquities, the wrapped remains were carefully removed and loaded onto the examination table - and that was when they found the items inside that rattled slightly but didn't break. Inside and attached to the head of the specimen's casket was a scroll written in ancient text.

An ebony-hilted katana was in its case, along with a vase painted with a scenery depicting an epic battle. In addition was an empty flask of what once had been water. All of them were perfectly preserved, which was an archaeologist's dream come true.

But the biggest surprise came when the coverings were finally removed from the human figure that Dan had sacrificed himself for.

"Tsunade," Orochimaru whispered to her from the opposite side of the table, "it appears as if it is only sleeping."

~o~

Twelve years later

All four of them grew up together, very close, but one of them went off to do something for himself while they stayed behind in Konoha because it was home to them. And ironically enough, the last three were accepted as interns at the Konoha Museum of Antiquities, which was the place they loved going to as children, although Naruto was so rambunctious in nature that it was so embarrassing to keep him at their sides. It was his energy that made him enjoy going out and finding what was hinted being out there, across the globe and in their own town and country - but it wasn't all that exciting as thought originally, because that meant trouble with the governments as well as different environments to suffer. You had to always be ready.

Sakura remembered nearly burning when she found herself in the deserts of Suna regarding a sand pit which housed a lost civilization: a miniature village that was compared to the large present. It was currently on display in its native museum, where it belonged. That had been her, Naruto and Hinata's first dig. Days, weeks out there in blistering summer sun, plenty of water and tents, and Naruto complaining for the majority of it. Although his girlfriend handled it gracefully.

Sakura was glad she dropped out of medical school to choose something like this, although her mother told her that she was making a big mistake in not doing what the family did - or rather, what she could never do.

It was an honor to have Tsunade Senju, one of the most leading archaeologists today, as her and her friends' employer and mentor, almost like a mother because she never married or had children of her own. She tended to be impatient, quick to anger, but also nurturing.

Which brought all three of them to the present, which was a month after the finding of the lost model of Suna. It involved a finding Tsunade discovered over a decade ago near the top of Mt. Yudono, hours away from Konoha, and brought back. All was originated from her colleague and sweetheart who died from the lack of oxygen and cold before he could get back. In short, Tsunade thought it her responsibility to take care of this one great treasure.

Hinata had paled the first time she saw the mummy, Naruto's eyes bulged, but Sakura looked upon the remains with something akin to sorrow. Her stomach sank. Now was the first time they were seeing the corpse in person, which had been on display since they were kids gazing at it from the other side of the glass.

The specimen was a young man, his exact age unclear. But his dark hair was long enough to probably go down his back; in the front of his scalp were light hints of gray. His skin was dark olive, no imperfections present. His expression was very peaceful, like he was simply asleep. "He looks like he just died yesterday!" Naruto had said the first time. "Or better yet, like he could wake up any time now!"

Indeed, the mummy looked so alive. Perfectly frozen in time. When he was first brought in, they were told by the woman herself, he was so delicate that cutting through him for an autopsy was out of the question. So they put him in cryo-preservation with little information as possible. What they did get of him was that he was likely a member of the Uchiha clan.

Hinata gasped when she found herself fixated on the artifacts that had been put on display beside their owner. "It...it can't be," she whispered. "The Uchiha clan existed barely six centuries ago. There's no artifacts, no solid evidence in the archives, only written battles in the history books."

Tsunade nodded, a distant look in her honey-colored eyes. "The rival clan that my family fought against. The history of conflict, the bloodshed, and then one day, the Uchiha vanished during the night. Bodies were never found; it was like they just disappeared," she said absently, before her tone hardened. "But here we have the first Uchiha mummy in hundreds of years. Dan died for it, and because of that and the fact the Senju and this one's people were bitter enemies, I feel it is my responsibility to care for him. And that is why you three are here."

"You can count on us, Granny!" Naruto declared with a beam, earning rolling eyes from the woman herself and from Sakura. "So, what do we do now?"

"Tonight we are going to take him to the scans, without having to take him apart on the operating table." And she meant a computing scan. If they found anything new with the CT scan, then they would be able to find more behind his background. This mummified young man held many dark secrets to a lost culture.

I don't know how to keep things short in terms of the story of the Inca Maiden and the other two with her (all three of them called the "Children of Llullaillaco"), but the team who suffered in searching for them endured a similar experience like Tsunade's when they found the mummy on Yudono. And the unwrapping of their finding was one of the most powerful experiences ever, for they thought she was probably still alive, just frozen in time and would wake after they thawed her out.

Reviews appreciated. :D Oh, and if anyone is interested, I'm also doing another tale of the supernatural, "Allure of Darkness". Both this chapter and the first of that one have gone up on this day, Valentines Day. What a way to celebrate.